Govt may link social media data with central database

National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project wants to link social media accounts to the central database system, according to a report by The Hindu.

The progress of this project was reviewed by Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday in North Block where a presentation was given to him about the same.

NATGRID is a huge database system that has data related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details and can be accessed by 10 central agencies of the country including Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

After the 2008 Mumbai attack, the lack of synergy among various central agencies was observed. As a result, a central online database was required.

In 2009, NATGRID was launched with a budget of Rs 2,800 crore with the purpose of collating scattered pieces of information and putting them on one platform.

The project gathered pace in 2016 during the NDA government's first tenure. IB officer Ahok Patnaik became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the project. Later, the project was headed by IAS officer Ashish Gupta.

The various data collected by the central database are telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc. to enable the generation of intelligence inputs.

NATGRID has been under controversy since its inception. While the government says it will help in analysing any terror plans and take immediate action against it. Many activists claim that it is a breach of privacy.

Linking of the database with social media will make it prone to Trojan attacks. “Linking the database to social media accounts could jeopardise the entire exercise as it could be exposed to unknown virus attacks from the open-source Internet,” a senior government official told The Hindu.